HARP SEAL
Phoca groenlandica

The harp seal's common name is descriptive of the adult male's pelt.  It has a large horseshoe-shaped black band on its back on a background of steel blue or pale gray.  The head is dark brown or black.  The horseshoe on the adult female's pelt may be less distinct and blotched.  Pups have white coats of soft, curly, woolly fur for about 1½ weeks, then they moult into a juvenile coat.  The average adult is 170 cm in length and weighs 135 kg. 

Harp seals are the third most abundant seal in the world.  There are three stocks:  the northwest Atlantic, the White Sea and Jan Mayen (north of Iceland).  The northwest Atlantic population numbers about 1.3 million.  These seals whelp in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and offshore Newfoundland.  After molting in April, they migrate northward and spend the summer around Greenland and in the eastern arctic islands of the Northwest Territories.  The southward migration begins